cracking the colour code....

Imagine if you could not see the blue sky or the pink and orange in a dusty sunset? It would be a different world would it not? The documentary Cracking the Colour Code on SBS on Wednesday night gave a true insight into how people interpret and see colour and how it can effect your moods, your relationships to food and your memory of objects.... I have such a facination with colour and how our intuition and hereditary makeup can play a part in how each of us sees it and uses it - and the doco explored that subject and more...

You know that feeling you get when putting on certain colours in the morning or night... especially in winter .... It can alter your mood and envoke a memory of being happy + warm...

And boy do we all need alittle of that at the moment! When I want to truly let colour wash over me and change my state of mind I think of one artist... Mark Rothko. He really took colour to a new level of awareness and to a spiritual place. The bleeding of colour into colour and the play on hue and saturation points just make you meditate! Especially when Im in the Rothko room at the Tate Modern with the dimmed lights and mulitple works surrounding me... true bliss for anyone who wants to experience colour on a different plane! And after being in London for a few days it can become a sanctuary!!

Another artist that truly understands colour, memory and stillness is Peter O'Doherty who recently had a solo exhibition at King St Gallery On William. It was a great show and the works reminded me of Rothko - in the way that each colour bled into another and the lines were soft and unfocused like they had been done with a paint gun and not a brush...

Peter is an artist that has been around for a while but this is the first solo that I had seen and it was a great group of works that spoke of times past and of memories that can be captured in a single object like an old chair...

Oh before I get out of here...I should just quickly mention a great find that I discovered yesterday on my travels... Oxfort Art Supplies in Chatswood has opened up a second store next door which houses one of the best selections of artbooks that I have seen in Sydney for a LONG LONG time! I started to hyperventilate at the selction and what I would like to purchase... and then a took another deep breath and decided to go home and think about compiling a sizable list...

and going back!!

Oh and another great music find if you love Jazzanova, Recloose, Fat Freddy's Drop + Isoul8...the Sonar Kollectiv label from Berlin has a radio mix that you can download for free... Its updated regularly and you can sign up to their newsletter for updates... Get cozy and enjoy!